As a result of the advent and explosion of the Internet and the World Wide Web (“Web”), computer users today frequently receive electronic documents from other users located in countries throughout the world. Electronic documents such as these often include numbers expressed in a unit of measurement utilized in the sender's particular country. For instance, users located in the United States are likely to express numbers in the Imperial system of measurement (e.g. inches, feet, etc.), while European users are likely to express numbers in the Metric system of measurement (e.g. centimeters, kilometers, etc.).
When users receive electronic documents having numbers expressed in measurement systems other than the system used in their native country, users may need to convert the numbers to their local measurement system to understand the meaning of the number. For instance, a user may want to convert a number expressed in degrees Fahrenheit, which is a unit of measure for temperatures commonly used in the United States, to degrees Celsius, which is a unit of measure for temperatures commonly used in Europe. However, converting numbers between measurement systems in this manner has heretofore been difficult for a user to accomplish easily.
Previously, if a user wanted to convert a number contained in an electronic document, such as a word processing document, between measurement systems, the user would first have to copy the number to be converted to a clipboard. The user would then paste the number into an external program or Web site capable of converting the number to the desired destination unit of measure. Once the external program or Web site had completed the conversion, the user may copy the converted number to the clipboard and then paste the converted number back into the electronic document. Although systems such as these do allow a user to convert a number between measurement systems, these systems can be difficult for to use because of the large number of steps required to complete the conversion. Moreover, these previous solutions require the user to perform the conversion using the user interface language of the conversion program or Web site. This can be extremely frustrating for a user that does not understand the language of the conversion program or Web site.
Therefore, in light of the above, there is a need for a method, system, and apparatus for easily converting numbers between measurement systems that do not require a user to utilize an external application or Web site to convert numbers between measurement systems. Moreover, there is a need for a method, system, and apparatus for converting numbers between systems of measure that can present conversion options to the user in a user-selected user interface language.